Hollywood hopes Cirque du Soleil brings back its glamour

LOS ANGELES -- Hollywood is betting on a company founded by a former fire-eater and freakish-looking acrobats to help put glitz back into its tarnished image.

Cirque du Soleil, the Canadian dance troupe that started as a street-act curiosity and morphed into a large and fast-growing company, is coming to Hollywood.

In a just-approved complicated financial entanglement among Cirque du Soleil, a major developer and the city of Los Angeles itself, Hollywood is on track to be one of 11 cities with a permanent show. If one more financial hurdle is passed, Cirque du Soleil in 2011 will open a Hollywood-themed show in the Kodak Theatre, home of the Academy Awards.

Supporters hope the Cirque du Soleil show, still in development and under wraps, will be the push Hollywood needs to begin morphing away from its current neglected state filled with a collection of run-down trinket shops.

"We have a chance to create something here," says Leron Gubler, CEO of the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce. "Hollywood has never been as glamorous as people imagined."

Hollywood continues to be a popular destination for tourists who come to Los Angeles. But despite repeated efforts to spruce up the area, many spots of storied Hollywood Boulevard are run-down or filled with peddlers of cheesy mugs, T-shirts and posters.

Enter Cirque du Soleil. The privately held company based in Montreal has gone from reinventing the tired circus to playing a role in turning cities into a draw. The company also has nine shows that travel for temporary appearances.

Full speed ahead, despite recession

The Hollywood project is just the latest expansion avenue for the company that keeps growing despite the recession, says CEO Daniel Lamarre. "People are so driven by numbers, and we're not," he says. "We can fight this recession by continuing to invest with what we're good at: good concepts and good shows."

Hollywood isn't the first place to look to Cirque du Soleil for a breath of life. Las Vegas hosts seven different Cirque du Soleil shows. And in November, Chicago will be home of the newest permanent show, when a Vaudeville-inspired performance opens.